WHO official dies of killer respiratory illness

The World Health Organisation (WHO) doctor who first identified the fast-spreading pneumonia that has killed 54 people worldwide has himself died of the disease, the United Nations agency said on Saturday local time.

Dr Carlo Urbani, 46, identified the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in an US businessman admitted to hospital in Hanoi in Vietnam, where Dr Urbani was based.

The virus, which has flu-like symptoms, has infected about 1,500 people.

"Because of his early detection of SARS, global surveillance was heightened and many new cases have been identified and isolated before they infected hospital staff," the WHO said in a statement.

WHO director-general Gro Harlem Brundtland paid tribute to Urbani, who was married with three children.

"His life reminds us again of our true work in public health," she said.